February 15, 2009

Remember that one-bedroom pre-WWII house with 500 square feet of floor space on a small lot in Compton, CA that sold for $340,000 in 2007? It's now on the market for $69,900, a price that somebody who doesn't have enough money to move straight outta Compton might conceivably be able to afford.

Fortunately, the Obama Administration has promised to announce on Wednesday a comprehensive program to prevent housing prices from falling to affordable levels like this. Bubble Forever!

“All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and Koreans,”

This reminds me of my dad. One of his stock gags was, when I or a sibling had hurt ourselves and were making a big fuss, he'd call us over and examine the wound. After a meaningful pause he'd say "yeah, that's pretty serious. We'll have to amputate."

Am I a missing something? The first 'goal' was to offer cheap mortgages so everyone could afford a home.... then prices inflated so high no one could afford a home. Now that the prices are going back down to where people can afford a home...the government wants to keep it inflated.

It doesn't make sense until one realizes we have a 'moneylender's economy' that's why the government discourages saving and all the 'stimulus' is geared to consumer spending (and this is key) through credit

It doesn't make sense until one realizes we have a 'moneylender's economy' that's why the government discourages saving and all the 'stimulus' is geared to consumer spending (and this is key) through credit.

Yep. Paul Krugman call it a national system of "Debt Peonage." I think the technical term in the Bible was "usury"...

I am really surprised that nobody on the Left seems bothered by the idea that Chinese factory workers who make (maybe) 40 cents an hour are going to bailout speculators and idiots who didn't read their mortgage contracts.

"I am really surprised that nobody on the Left seems bothered by the idea that Chinese factory workers who make (maybe) 40 cents an hour are going to bailout speculators and idiots who didn't read their mortgage contracts."

Fortunately, the Obama Administration has promised to announce on Wednesday a comprehensive program to prevent housing prices from falling to affordable levels.

Is that the plan? From my reading I interpreted the plan as being one where Obama forces banks to take the loss based on the "owners" ability to pay. Banks will be forced to write off principle, not just reduce interest rates. Payments will have to be cut to a maximum of 31% of income. Thus if a "homeowner" earns $50,000 and makes $19,000 a year in mortgage payments the bank will have to reduce payments so that they don't exceed $15,500.

This is a massive handout to Obama voters. Note that Obama will be signing his stimulus package in Denver, then taking a trip to Arizona to propose this giveaway. And, of course, many of his cabinet members (or proposed cabinet members, like Richardson) are Westerners. Obama clearly thinks the West is his for the taking. But we all know that Hispanics are natural Republicans, right? Right?

The U.S. government has no particular interest in discouraging savings or to encourage borrowing, as suggested by either you (or as maintained by the jerk Krugman). Rather, the (very real) discouragement of savings occurs because the government (at most times) is in a continuous process of trying to lower the rate of interest by inflating: creating new currency and credit. Their purpose in doing so is to favor certain economic sectors and firms (banks among them) but not by encouraging continuous consumer debt.

The degree to which people spend their incomes (including the degree to which they spend it on imported articles) is very dependent on prevailing opinion as to the future value (purchasing power) of the monetary unit. While recognizing that people differ widely in their spending/saving patterns ("time preference"), all people are influenced toward greater spending, the greater is their expectation that the value of their money will fall in the future (especially if it is expected that it will fall rather sharply). Folks at all levels are continually faced with an inner argument that there's no point in saving, especially beyond some amount considered necessary for "a rainy day" and some prospect of retirement because they face the prospect of being worse off with respect to the same purchase(s) if they wait, and this especially with respect to relatively long-lasting consumption goods such as homes, home improvements and furnishings, and automobliles. It's a crooked game--just not quite the one you'd imagined.

The same is true with respect to the "trade deficit," which simply illustrates the anxiousness of Americans to get rid of that distinctly depreciating stuff as quickly as possible for as much other stuff as they can get for it.

I called Krugman a jerk. He really is. He's the guy who said 9/11 would prove to be a boon to our economy. I heard him say it.

A little off-topic, but I've long wondered whether TPTB introduced "The Change" so as to be able to give more quota-hire work to minority actors & actresses.

The original Klingons were pretty much 100% white [being caricatures of our Russkie adversaries in the Cold War], but a huge percentage of the post-change Klingons have been played by minorities [e.g. Michael Dorn, Roxanne Dawson, etc].

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You can put money into your Google Wallet Balance from your bank account and send it with no service fee.

Google Wallet works from both a website and a smartphone app (Android and iPhone -- the Google Wallet app is currently available only in the U.S., but the Google Wallet website can be used in 160 countries).

Or, once you sign up with Google Wallet, you can simply send money via credit card, bank transfer, or Wallet Balance as an attachment from Google's free Gmail email service. Here'show to do it.

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